It was a first for the Norwegians and the Swedes, and maybe everybody else who has played at the Ford Worlds men’s curling championship.
Trailing by two in the second end of their Draw Seven collision on Monday afternoon at the Brandt Centre, Swedish third Sebastian Kraupp saw the electronic handle on the second stone he was delivering flash green, then red, then green again, then red again, then begin to warble an indistinguishable tune.
(Photo: Michael Burns Photography)
By that time, though, the stone had been released, had been in contact with at least two other stationary stones in the rings, and confusion reigned. Was the shot legit? Was the stone hogged? Was it fouled at the hogline? What was the ruling?
Turned out nobody was certain. The Swedes thought they recalled the positions and angles involved in the stones moved. The Norwegians couldn’t recall. And it turned out the handle on Kraupp’s stone was found to involve a defective battery.
The teams were given two choices — play the shot again once there was agreement on the positions of the rocks or play the entire end again.
It was finally agreed that the end would be replayed. It didn’t work out well for Sweden. Thomas Ulsrud’s charges stole a pair for a 4-0 lead and Norway went on to square its record at 2-2 with an 8-5 victory over Niklas Edin’s Karlstad crew, which lost its second in five starts.
Elsewhere on the afternoon slate, Scotland’s Tommy Brewster and Co., climbed in front of the pack with a 5-0 record courtesy a last-rock 5-4 win over Jiri Snitil of the Czech Republic in an extra end. The Scots controlled the issue from the start but yielded an extra-end opportunity to the Czechs when Brewster flashed his last rock of the 10th frame.
Canada’s Jeff Stoughton (4-0) will have the chance to pull even atop the round-robin table later today when he directs traffic against Pete Fenson of the U.S.
Germany’s Andy Kapp won his second of five by defeating Fenson 5-4 while Switzerland’s Christof Schwaller pulled even at 2-2 with a 7-1 rout of China’s Yansong Ji.